Chris Piascik Inspired Doodle Drawings

After a break from school, I like to get the students back in the swing of things with a fun project to jump start their creativity and get their artistic juices flowing. I have done this project before with elementary school, but I was really excited to introduce it to my high school students to see what they could come up with. I chose artist, Chris Piascik, as inspiration because he didn’t set out to be an illustrator because he never thought he could make a living out of it since he didn’t draw realistically. He ended up falling into the career when he was around 30. I think that is such a great lesson for kids to learn. You might be surprised with what you can achieve in life if you just try. Perhaps the only thing that is holding you back is you. Here is a YouTube video talking about his experiences becoming an artist as well as a video of him completing one of his doodle.

Artist/Illustrator that inspired the project

Video of artist, Chris Piascik, making one of his doodle artworks

Steps

Into the lesson with the videos above and discuss about the idea of not being afraid to try.
I like to do a small demonstration because there is actually a not so great way to complete the doodle part. If the students doodle very quickly, they will get a lot of small sections and their lines will skip giving them incomplete circles. Students want to be intentional with their doodle, making big, sweeping circles. It is also not continuous, so they can pick up their pencil and add sections as they see fit.
When their initial doodle is done, they can begin adding characters, animals, words, or patterns in the different section. They can use multiple sections for a drawing, they do not have to make a drawing in each individual section. I like to equate this step to seeing images in clouds. What can their imagination come up with. They could come up with a theme like animals or food, but this in not required.
They can then outline it with sharpie or begin coloring. I had the, use markers, but colored pencils could be used as well. I think the markers are more vibrant. If they sharpie, erase the pencil marks before coloring.